Time-dependent mass spectra and breakdown graphs. 6. Slow unimolecular dissociation of bromobenzene ions at near threshold energies

Heterobimetallic Complexes That Point to When Bond Dissociation Energies Deviate from Computational Expectations

Measurement of the formal, gas-phase, d8-d10 bond dissociation energy across a series of structurally homologous heterobimetallic complexes of Pd(II) with Cu(I), Ag(I), Au(I), and Zn(II), themselves models for the transition states for transmetalation in Sonogashira and Negishi couplings, finds large discrepancies relative to predictions by a commonly used dispersion-corrected density-functional theory method, DFT-D3(BJ), but not in all cases. Control studies on the threshold collision-induced dissociation (T-CID) of electrosprayed molecular ions, as well as the deconvolution of the bond energy from the experimentally measured energy-resolved cross sections, indicate that the experimentally determined bond dissociation energies are most likely correct, which raises the question of why the computational methods, while sometimes agreeing acceptably with experiment, can also sometimes disagree egregiously. While initial attempts to characterize the discrepancy focused on the metal-metal interaction, the most likely origin of the discrepancy appears to be an uneven treatment of nonbonded interactions, among them medium-ranged correlation effects and London dispersion, between the ligands on the two metal centers. The contribution of these effects to the formal bond dissociation energy is large enough to be chemically significant, but it appears to depend on the nature of the interacting groups, specifically the hybridization at carbon, and, more importantly, their relative orientation. Whereas face-to-face aryl-aryl interactions seem to be modeled well by PBE-D3(BJ), a representative DFT-D3 method, alkyl-aryl, and edge-to-face aryl-aryl interactions appear to be overestimated. The consequences for structure and stability in organic and organometallic molecules are discussed, especially with regard to relative energies of conformers and interconverting valence isomers.

Model Compounds for Intermediates and Transition States in Sonogashira and Negishi Coupling: d8-d10 Bonds in Large Heterobimetallic Complexes Are Weaker than Computational Chemistry Predicts

We report an experimental study, with accompanying DFT calculations, on a series of heterobimetallic complexes with Pd(II) and Cu(I), Ag(I), or Au(I). The isolable pincer complexes are models for the intermediates and transition state for the transmetalation step in Sonogashira and Negishi coupling reactions, among which, according to the DFT calculations, only the transition state has the two metal centers within bonding distance. Furthermore, we report a substituted version of an analogous heterobimetallic complex in which a competing dissociation sets an upper-bound on the strength of the d⁸-d¹⁰ metal-metal bond. Analysis of the structures in the solid state and in solution, and the competitive dissociation experiment in the gas phase, indicate that the dispersion-corrected DFT method used in the study appears to overestimate the strength of the metal-metal interaction, thus distorting the shape of the computed potential energy surface systematically for transmetalation.

Excited-state Dynamics of Radical Ions in Liquids

Thomas Bally has acquired international recognition for his work on the photochemistry of reactive intermediates, which include radical ions. Here, we present a brief overview of our investigations of the excited-state dynamics of radical ions in liquids at room temperature, which are still poorly documented. A better understanding of these dynamics is most relevant, as open-shell ions in the excited state are being increasingly used in redox photochemistry and have been proposed to play a key role in highly exergonic photoinduced electron transfer reactions.

Surface-induced dissociation: a unique tool for studying energetics and kinetics of the gas-phase fragmentation of large ions

Surface-induced dissociation (SID) is a valuable tool for investigating the activation and dissociation of large ions in tandem mass spectrometry. This account summarizes key findings from studies of the energetics and mechanisms of complex ion dissociation in which SID experiments were combined with Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus modeling of the experimental data. These studies used time- and collision-energy-resolved SID experiments and SID combined with resonant ejection of selected fragment ions on a specially designed Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (FT-ICR) mass spectrometer. Fast-ion activation by collision with a surface combined with the long and variable timescale of FT-ICR mass spectrometry is perfectly suited to studying the energetics and dynamics of complex ion dissociation in the gas phase. Modeling of time- and collision-energy-resolved SID enables the accurate determination of energy and entropy effects in the dissociation process. It has been demonstrated that entropy effects play an important role in determining the dissociation rates of both covalent and noncovalent bonds in large gaseous ions. SID studies have provided important insights on the competition between charge-directed and charge-remote fragmentation in even-electron peptide ions and the role of the charge and radical site on the energetics of the dissociation of odd-electron peptide ions. Furthermore, this work examined factors that affect the strength of noncovalent binding, as well as the competition between covalent and noncovalent bond cleavages and between proton and electron transfer in model systems. Finally, SID studies have been used to understand the factors affecting nucleation and growth of clusters in solution and in the gas phase.

Bond-dissociation energies of cations--pushing the limits to quantum state resolution

Currently available concepts for measuring the bond-dissociation energy of cations D(o) are reviewed. Starting from the traditional approach of directly measuring the threshold energy for the appearance of fragment ions, attention is directed towards indirect measurements, where threshold energies are obtained by extrapolation of, for example, rate constants k(E) or kinetic energy release (KER) data to the threshold of interest. More recent high precision techniques again utilize direct measurements, for example, of the disappearance energy of the parent ion. Most precise data are obtained from quantum state resolved measurements of the dissociation energy, where the threshold energy is bracketed by the existing quantum states above and below the threshold. Ultimately the limits can even be pushed beyond the bracketing limit, by investigating steps on the lineshape of homogeneously broadened single rotational transitions.

Role of angular momentum conservation in unimolecular translational energy release: Validity of the orbiting transition state theory

The translational kinetic energy release distribution (KERD) for the halogen loss reaction of the bromobenzene and iodobenzene cations has been reinvestigated on the microsecond time scale. Two necessary conditions of validity of the orbiting transition state theory (OTST) for the calculation of kinetic energy release distributions (KERDs) have been formulated. One of them examines the central ion-induced dipole potential approximation. As a second criterion, an adiabatic parameter is derived. The lower the released translational energy and the total angular momentum, the larger the reduced mass, the rotational constant of the molecular fragment, and the polarizability of the released atom, the more valid is the OTST. Only the low-energy dissociation of the iodobenzene ion (E approximately 0.45 eV, where E is the internal energy above the reaction threshold) is found to fulfill the criteria of validity of the OTST. The constraints that act on the dissociation dynamics have been studied by the maximum entropy method. Calculations of entropy deficiencies (which measure the deviation from a microcanonical distribution) show that the pair of fragments does not sample the whole of the phase space that is compatible with the mere specification of the internal energy. The major constraint that results from conservation of angular momentum is related to a reduction of the dimensionality of the dynamics of the translational motion to a two-dimensional space. A second and minor constraint that affects the KERD leads to a suppression of small translational releases, i.e., accounts for threshold behavior. At high internal energies, the effects of curvature of the reaction path and of angular momentum conservation are intricately intermeddled and it is not possible to specify the share of each effect.

Kinetic energy release distributions in mass spectrometry

Kinetic energy releases (KERs) in unimolecular fragmentations of singly and multiply charged ions provide information concerning ion structures, reaction energetics and dynamics. This topic is reviewed covering both early and more recent developments. The subtopics discussed are as follows: (1) introduction and historical background; (2) ion dissociation and kinetic energy release: kinematics; potential energy surfaces; (3) the kinetic energy release distribution (KERD); (4) metastable peak observations: measurements on magnetic sector and time-of-flight instruments; energy selected results by photoelectron photoion coincidence (PEPICO); (5) extracting KERDs from metastable peak shapes; (6) ion structure determination and reaction mechanisms: singly and multiply charged ions; biomolecules and fullerenes; (7) theoretical approaches: phase space theory (PST), orbiting transition state (OTS)/PST, finite heat bath theory (FHBT) and the maximum entropy method; (8) exit channel interactions; (9) general trends: time and energy dependences; (10) thermochemistry: organometallic reactions, proton-bound clusters, fullerenes; and (11) the efficiency of phase space sampling.

Internal energy content of n-butylbenzene, bromobenzene, iodobenzene and aniline molecular ions generated by two-photon ionization at 266 nm. A photodissociation study

A technique to investigate photodissociation kinetics on a nanosecond time scale has been devised for molecular ions generated by multiphoton ionization (MPI) using mass-analyzed ion kinetic energy spectrometry. The branching ratio or rate constant has been determined for the photodissociation of the n-butylbenzene, bromobenzene, iodobenzene, and aniline molecular ions generated by MPI at 266 nm. The ion internal energies have been estimated by comparing the measured kinetic data with the previous energy dependence data. The analysis has shown that only those molecular ions generated by two-photon ionization contribute to the photodissociation signals. Around half of the available energy has been found to remain as molecular ion internal energy in the two-photon ionization process. Copyright 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

An investigation of the energetics of peptide ion dissociation by laser desorption chemical ionization fourier transform mass spectrometry

The energy dependence of competing fragmentation pathways of protonated peptide molecules is studied via laser desorption-chemical ionization in a Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance spectrometer. Neutral peptide molecules are desorbed by the technique of substrate-assisted laser desorption, followed by post-ionization with a proton transfer reagent ion species. The chemical ionization reaction activates the protonated peptide molecules, which then fragment in accordance with the amount of excess energy that is deposited. Chemical ionization forms a protonated molecule with a narrower distribution of activation energy than can be formed by activation methods such as collision activated dissociation. Furthermore, the upper limit of the activation energy is well defined and is approximately given by the enthalpy of the chemical ionization reaction. Control over the fragmentation of peptide ions is demonstrated through reactions between desorbed peptide molecules with different reagent ion species. The fragmentation behavior of peptide ions with different internal energies is established by generation of a breakdown curve for the peptide under investigation. Breakdown curves are reported for the peptides Val-Pro, Val-Pro-Leu, Phe-Phe-Gly-Leu-Met NH2, and Arg-Lys-Asp-Val-Tyr. The derived breakdown curve of Val-Pro has been fitted by using quasi-equilibrium Rice-Ramsperger-Kassel-Marcus theory to model the unimolecular dissociation of the protonated peptide to provide a better understanding of the mechanisms for the formation of fragment ions that originate from protonated peptides.